Our Family & Our Life

Dear Diary, We finally decided to take a family day trip out to the Denver Zoo! She loved it! She loved the animals and especially the people. Yes, we have been blessed with a nosey little girl. Unfortunately, the camera battery was 99% dead when we arrived and the backup was 100% dead so we have three photos to share. I'm disappointed but I'm sure we'll go again. Here is the best of what we have to share: Those are flamingos in the background - silly face, I know... With Colin in the aviary - I think the birds were called Lorikeets or something to that affect. They looked like miniature toucans. So cute and there were so many - this photo does them no justice! And you can't go to the zoo without eating lunch! It's a nice zoo, not too big and easily walked through in a few hours. We saw a wildlife show that had birds of prey flying over our heads and as we neared the end of our day we noticed that they let the peacocks roam aimlessly around. T

Dear Diary, I checked online the status of our visa's this morning and it's not looking good for our trip to Ontario at the beginning of July. For our visa type the processing time in Texas is three months. Three months from March 31 (the date they recieved our applications) is the end of June and if we are issued visas we still have to get an appointment to recieve the actual physical visa in our passports. Presumably this will take place in Denver. I doubt very much we will make it to the wedding on July 10 but I'm still holding onto the hope that we do. Unless the Texas processing centre issues it between now and before June 30 then we might have a chance however in all my visa obtaining experience, I have yet to witness government bureaucrats exceed processing times. I should add here that we are "legal" in America but even our attorney is advising us not to leave the country as the border crossing guards have the right to refuse entry

Dear Diary, The last few weeks I was MIA from the blog and now I'm posting everyday! Our day is pretty boring and nothing to post about but I have a few photos I wanted to share of Isla. This is why I try to keep all bathroom doors closed but oh, the fun! My little chipmunk? When she eats she STUFFS her mouth, argghhh... She's so happy when she wakes up from her nap with Teddy and Eddy How could I not love this beautiful face?

Dear Diary, In between smiles and kisses, we hear " hi there " frequently in that sweet, sweet little voice! she figured out how to climb on the (ugly) futon acting coy on the (ugly) futon gone are the days of sitting still for photos!

Dear Diary, I'm back. I gave myself a bit of blogging hiatus even though it wasn't intentional, we were just busy with other things. We are tired but well. We really could do with a break sometime but so far that hasn't appeared on the radar. This afternoon proved to be interesting. We were home from church about 1:00, Isla was down for a nap and all of a sudden the sky went dark and the wind really picked up. It was obvious another Colorado afternoon storm was imminent and this one was different. The emergency alert system was launched across the airwaves (both radio and tv) warning of tornado sightings northeast of Denver. The next thing you know there was another one in our county! Yikes, the tornado sirens could be heard loud and clear but Colin and I still found ourselves gazing out of the kitchen window. Could we be in a worse position? We weren't sure if we were over-reacting or not but we decided that tornado's are not meant to be taken lightly. Taki

Dear Diary, Yes, we're OK, just a bit busy and trying to make the new apt. feel like home. We moved last weekend to our new apt. and with help from some gentlemen from church it didn't take very long. I'm just thankful that we move frequently because we didn't have anything to get rid of but still lots of work. We like our new apt. but it's by no means our "forever house". The balcony is quite a bit smaller and so is the living space although the bedrooms are bigger. It's 1138 square feet so more than big enough for the 5 of us. The cats are not enjoying it because they can't go outside. We are on the ground floor but that means they can run off so we are keeping them indoors for a few months. Eventually we'll put some chicken wire around the balcony and then they can to out. In the meantime, we hear alot of whining to get outside. We still hold the lease to our other apartment until June 6. Most of our things are out of it but I have

Dear Diary, I'm doing a bit of reminiscing today - we left our lovely Larne house at 4:00 a.m. and headed to Dublin for our flight to Toronto one year ago. The thing is, it seems like I always move in May : - In May 2002, I put the offer in for my condo in Burlington (moved in July 2002). - In May 2005, I sold and moved out of my condo in Burlington. - I left Canada and moved to the UK in May 2005. - We bought and moved in our Larne house in May 2006. - We left N. Ireland in May 2008. - We are in the process of packing & moving tomorrow to our new apartment and we plan on staying there for a very long time!!! No more moving , so yes, next year, I'm gonna try my best to miss the month of May just in case we have to move, again...

Dear Diary, You know you have a toddler when you have to go out to buy cabinet locks or else the Comet cleaning powder is all over the kitchen. Yes, that happened last week, not pretty. Since we're moving this weekend this is the only cabinet that isn't locked because if we installed it, we would need to screw it in... In the meantime, she's been having a blast with the Saran Wrap, waxed paper and such. The fingers have only been caught once. So far... 'Til next time,

Dear Diary, Isla is now 15 months old and WOW didn't she enjoy her last month of life. In case you haven’t heard, the big news is she is walking ! It started with three steps everyday for about a week but one night she REALLY wanted her teddy and nothing was going to stop her. She went for 8 steps and before we knew it was 20 steps to get to her Fisher Price telephone. Who would've thought? She is now walking 95% of the time with rarely a stumble. She is also eating much better as long as I have 3 hours to spare. She is a super ssssllllooooowwww eater but hey, it's better than nothing! I think speed is the secret with the lady and she is eating lumpy food including meat and vegetables fairly well too. She'll eat just about anything with applesauce. Her 15 months stats are: Weight: 21.4 lbs. Teeth - 1 new upper molar for a total of 11 teeth and I’m waiting for the first canine tooth (lower left) to cut through. Words: "hi there", "teddy" a

Dear Diary, My sweet Pearl would never do this, only Dixie, Colin's cat. Can you guess where she is? We must've had a rip under the box spring mattress (or she scratched it open) and the furry lady made herself comfortable in it for an afternoon nap... Did you forget we had cats?